Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit. . .

NPR ran what I thought was a very lame segment on traditions of New Year's Day--probably because it was too short and therefore limited. The singular phone call from Alabama that I heard was from Birmingham. A woman said she never did laundry on New Year's Day but she really didn't know why. Well, the reason why is that WHATEVER you do that day, you will do every day of the year, so take care what you do.

Other traditions a bit more interesting are:

• Eat blackeyed peas cooked with hog jowl for good luck. (A ham bone will suffice if you're stumped on finding hog jowl.)
• Make noise at midnight. Firecrackers are good. Firing a gun into the sky is also an option.
• My all-time fave is dying out, but my parents insisted that you try to say "Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit" before the other person did on first waking up that day. They did not know why we must say it or where this tradition originated, but we always said it. I still do.

Does anyone else have the "rabbit, rabbit, rabbit" tradition? Do you know where it originated??